Figure 5. Analysis of skin perfused blood during a mosquito bite or SGE inoculation from sialokinin-gene edited Ae. aegypti.

(A) Diagram of workflow of laser speckle experiments during a mosquito bite.

(B) Speckle tissue perfusion images of mouse lower back during WT or KO mosquito bites (sialoKⁱ⁵ and sialoK^Δ8).

(C) Graphs showing the blood perfusion units in each group during probing, feeding, and 2 min post-feeding. High blood perfusion is visualized in red and low blood perfusion is in blue. The results were normalized to the blood perfusion units at the bite site before probing and are shown as the mean of measurements of 10 mosquitoes per group (WT, sialoKⁱ⁵, and sialoK^Δ8) ± SEMs. The results from sialoKⁱ⁵ and sialoK^Δ8 were combined for representation and analysis.

(D) Diagram of workflow of laser speckle experiments during injection of SGE.

(E) Speckle tissue perfusion images of mouse lower back during injection of SGE from WT or KO mosquitoes.

(F) Graphs showing the blood perfusion units in each group before and 1 min and 2 min after SGE injection. The results were normalized to the blood perfusion units at the inoculation site before SGE injection. The results are shown as the mean of 6 injections per group ±SEMs. The results from sialoKⁱ⁵ and sialoK^Δ8 were combined for representation and analysis. Two regions of interest were selected: the mosquito biting or injection area (1) and a control area separated from the bite or injection (2). Each mosquito bite or injection corresponded to 1 biological replicate. Regions of interest selected as controls always remained lower than 2 blood perfusion units. Scale bar, 0.5 cm. A 2-way ANOVA test was used to determine the statistical significance. Multiple comparisons were made among treatments for each time point; ns: p > 0.05; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001.